Great game, great sesaon...Lot's of hockey talk. That's why we come here. It's about Bruin fans talking Bruins with other Bruin fans. In the end, we won the cup. That's all anyone will remember. You all have a cold one on me and send me the bill. Go B's Go !!!

hendy, I took a lot of abuse myself just in defending Claude's system...Listen to one of the NESN crew talk about the importance of the "system" in that we lost Savard, Horton, and it didn't seem to matter. The players bought into the system and I kept reminding people what it was like under Dave Lewis (who I probably was too hard on because he didn't have a lot of talent under him). Lewis just let the players skate amok with no plan, no rhyme, no reason. Julien immediately established a "boring" trap first season, and each year after he got more or more players to buy in, and Chiarelli put the last few pieces together...accent on faster skaters--Marchand, Peverly, Kelly....Julien is a genius, He is a Belichick and a Francona and both of them have made mistakes over the years and been abused on the forum over the years...Julien class act, team won with class, and that's something that no one can say about this team...it wasn't a dirty team, or a team you could hate...they played the game well, the right way, and with class, and still were hard hitting at times.

...to Claude. I doubted you, a lot of Bruins fans doubted you. But you proved us all wrong and brought the Cup back to Boston! Woo hoo! Posted by TimThomas-god

I'LL second that,way to go Bruins,that was an incrediable journey you took us on,with highs and lows,and ending with the greatest high,i will injoy it for the next few months,than we will all go on another journey next year,but for now enjoy your summer,used earned it all.

I've had my moments with Claude's style too.But he did it right. Lay a foundation and keep adding layers once the groundwork is established, regardless of how we thought the process produced a stale vision of what we thought hockey "should be".

He also deserves kudos for his Francona-esqe loyalty to his players. The fact he stuck with guys during their struggles (read; Ryder, Kaberle, Paille, Thornton, etc.) and kept them involved and staying bought into "the system" payed HUGE dividends for this team when it mattered most.

Caude is a stanley cup champion I never thought I would be typing that!

No matter what he does the rest of his time in boston can't bring my self to bad mout the man ever. He prooved me wrong and I am happy as heck. I did pick the bruins in 7 before the series started. But claude I am sorry for all the stuff I have posted about you!

...to Claude. I doubted you, a lot of Bruins fans doubted you. But you proved us all wrong and brought the Cup back to Boston! Woo hoo! Posted by TimThomas-god

A lesson in life for you and others my friend and fellow fan. To better understand his philosophy I repeat myself. "An old bull and a young bull were walking in a meadow when suddenly the young bull exclaimed, Hey pop look at all the cows on the hill over there! I'm going to run over and "boff" one! The old bull stated, Take your time son, walk slowly up there and "boff' them all!

hendy, I took a lot of abuse myself just in defending Claude's system...Listen to one of the NESN crew talk about the importance of the "system" in that we lost Savard, Horton, and it didn't seem to matter. The players bought into the system and I kept reminding people what it was like under Dave Lewis (who I probably was too hard on because he didn't have a lot of talent under him). Lewis just let the players skate amok with no plan, no rhyme, no reason. Julien immediately established a "boring" trap first season, and each year after he got more or more players to buy in, and Chiarelli put the last few pieces together...accent on faster skaters--Marchand, Peverly, Kelly....Julien is a genius, He is a Belichick and a Francona and both of them have made mistakes over the years and been abused on the forum over the years...Julien class act, team won with class, and that's something that no one can say about this team...it wasn't a dirty team, or a team you could hate...they played the game well, the right way, and with class, and still were hard hitting at times.Posted by dannycater

Great take Danny which I'd like to add to.

Julien's system and the players executing it so well was the difference in this series. The system completely took the Sedin's out of what they like to do which is quickly move the puck east-west. Chara and that long reach certainly had a lot to do with shutting down those passing lanes but if the Canucks wanted to move the puck from east to west they were going to have to do at the top of the zone and not at the circles. That allowed Thomas good vision and didn't allow the Canucks to exploit his strength/weakness which is to aggressively commit and come out while he does it.

When there was a rebound Thomas controlled those and there was almost always a Bruin who knew his assignment was to be there and another to be where assigned to accept the pass to escape the zone.

A telling play was last night when the game was very much up fro grabs and Chara turned the puck over. Everybody stayed in the system, Chara did not chase the puck, he went to support the crease.

You are right on about adding speed and using it to counter attack on failed attacks of the B's Zone and to forecheck.

I would like to add that Julien's staying true to his beliefs were also a huge difference in the series. Giving Thorton more minutes rather than Seguin in Game 3 forward was huge. Keeping Recchi minutes up on PP when the rest of the world was screaming for Seguin, again huge. And never surrendering his desire to match-up his best defense pair against the Twins was huge in Game 7 and even though the B's lost the first 3 in Van, how close those games were because of that gave the B's and Thomas tremendous confidence in Game 7. And once Marchand hit Patrice for the first goal, it sucked all the swagger out of the Canucks.